Tech Solutions Driving Sustainability Beyond Water and Waste
Sustainability in hospitality often brings to mind water conservation and waste reduction—but as technology continues to evolve, sustainability solutions are impacting a broader range of hotel operations, from procurement to financial management. These innovations help hotels improve both their environmental footprint and their business performance. Here’s how:
Procurement Technology: Ensuring Eco-Friendly Purchases
For hotels aiming to reduce their environmental impact, sustainable procurement practices are key. BirchStreet Systems’ cloud-based procurement platform allows properties to streamline purchasing and source eco-friendly products. Hotels can verify that items meet specific environmental standards—from biodegradable toiletries to energy-efficient laundry machines—and make smarter, greener choices without sacrificing quality or guest satisfaction.
Valerie Layman, Chief Product Officer at BirchStreet, explains: “With our advanced platform, hotels can access a digital catalog of sustainable products, ensuring that every purchase meets both eco-friendly standards and operational needs. This solution makes it easier to choose certified, high-quality items while saving time on manual research.”
The ability to source certified products with minimal effort aligns with eco-conscious guest expectations, contributing to improved loyalty and trust in the hotel’s sustainability efforts.
Automation and Digital Payments: Cutting Paper and Carbon Emissions
The environmental benefits of automating processes like accounts payable (AP) are significant, as hotels reduce paper usage, waste, and carbon footprints. AvidXchange provides AP automation solutions that help properties eliminate paper-based invoicing and payments, contributing to a greener environment.
According to Brian Thayer, Head of Real Estate and Hospitality at AvidXchange: “Our technology has helped customers save 4,510 trees, 4 million gallons of water, 3.39 million pounds of CO2 emissions, and 222,000 pounds of solid waste.” The transition to digital payments also allows hotels to streamline operations, improve cash flow management, and take advantage of vendor discounts, freeing up resources for other sustainability efforts.
By optimizing financial processes and reducing paper waste, AvidXchange’s solutions help hotels maintain operational efficiency and enhance the guest experience, aligning with eco-conscious trends and improving the bottom line.
Financial Tools to Fund Sustainability Initiatives
Sustainability technologies often require an upfront investment, but financial tools can help hotels overcome this challenge. AvidXchange’s platform offers real-time analytics and energy consumption tracking, enabling hotels to better manage their utilities and forecast future costs. This insight helps properties adjust their energy rates, reduce consumption, and ultimately direct funds toward other sustainability upgrades.
Turning Ambition into Action: Overcoming Barriers to Sustainable Tech Adoption
While guest expectations are clearly nudging the hospitality industry toward more sustainable operations, turning those ambitions into actionable change isn’t always straightforward. Hoteliers face real challenges—technical, financial, and cultural—when introducing new sustainability technologies into existing operations.
For many properties, the biggest hurdle is cost. Even when the long-term return on investment is promising, convincing decision-makers to allocate immediate capital can be a hard sell.
“It’s hard for properties and leadership teams to see the long-term ROI that sustainability technology can provide,” Lindhorn says.
He adds that resistance isn’t just internal—guests themselves may push back on changes like reduced housekeeping, making clear communication about environmental benefits essential.
Compatibility with existing systems presents another layer of complexity. According to Stephanie Lin, VP and General Manager of Operate at Matterport, issues around infrastructure, training, and deployment timelines often discourage hotels from acting.
“This allows the business to gut-check the solution before scaling and then deploy it widely for maximum ROI,” she says, pointing to mobile-based tools that can scale over time.
Even when infrastructure upgrades are possible, hotels can find themselves bogged down in the complexities of data collection and certification compliance.
“The slow adoption of modern, integrated technology solutions further complicates data management, leaving hotels without the tools needed to efficiently track, analyze, and report on sustainability metrics,” says Ahmed.
He notes that many hotels still rely on manual processes that are time-consuming and error-prone. Automating and centralizing this work is key to making progress visible and actionable.
Water reuse technology poses unique challenges, particularly when it comes to guest perception.
“Hotels considering onsite water reuse naturally ask about the return on investment, implementation complexity, and potential guest disruptions—along with the psychological ‘yuck factor,’” Tartakovsky says.
His company has responded with educational campaigns aimed at demystifying water recycling, including a craft beer made from recycled water that’s been served at industry events worldwide. The idea: show, don’t just tell.
As the hospitality industry embraces its role in the global sustainability effort, the path forward will require more than ambition. With thoughtful planning, strategic partnerships, and a willingness to test and scale, hotels can bridge the gap between sustainable intentions and real-world impact—one system, one upgrade, one decision at a time.
Efficiency Meets Experience: Where Sustainability and Operations Align
Once hotels begin adopting sustainability-focused technology, the next challenge is ensuring those tools don’t disrupt daily operations—or compromise the guest experience. Fortunately, today’s solutions are increasingly designed to do both: reduce environmental impact and improve the overall quality of service.
“Sustainability technology helps hotels balance operational efficiency with guest expectations by streamlining data management, reducing manual workloads, and ensuring accurate sustainability reporting,” says Ahmed.
Automation tools like BeCause’s Certification Co-Pilot can cut down on duplicate data entry, lower compliance costs, and allow leaner teams to do more with less—all without reducing transparency to guests.
On the infrastructure side, technologies like Epic Cleantec’s OneWater™ system offer fully automated water reuse operations that integrate into existing property workflows.
“The system is fully automated, with remote monitoring and operating capabilities that allow both Epic Cleantec operators and hotel facility managers to track performance in real time,” says Tartakovsky. “This reduces onsite operator time, lowers ongoing operational costs, and enhances overall efficiency, ensuring that sustainability measures complement—not complicate—day-to-day hotel management.”
Lin agrees that hospitality leaders are increasingly focused on tech that drives efficiency first—but that doesn’t mean they’re ignoring environmental goals.
“Smart hotel leaders are finding ways to apply technology that drives efficiency and simultaneously benefits sustainability goals, more often than seeking out ‘sustainability technology,’” she says.
For example, digital twins created via Matterport can eliminate unnecessary site visits, reduce renovation timelines, and allow cross-functional teams to collaborate remotely—cutting both costs and carbon emissions in the process.
This dual focus is especially important as hotels seek to maintain high standards for guest comfort. Lindhorn notes that predictive technology plays a key role here:
“Utilizing smart automation for things like room temperature and lighting predicts guests’ needs before they have to think about them,” he says. “Predictive technology also helps reduce potential disruptions, as issues will be flagged by the system before a problem escalates.”
When implemented thoughtfully, these technologies don’t just help hotels hit their climate targets—they also create smoother operations, happier guests, and more resilient business models. The result? A future where sustainability is not an add-on, but an integral part of running a competitive, high-performing hotel.
